Chapter 4865

Shiler knew Stark was a three-minute-passion, impatient type, but he hadn't expected him to be this impatient. Just a few days ago they'd talked about making a personal film, and today the whole setup was already assembled.

"Look at the script." Stark threw two folders in front of Shiler, then pulled out two more for himself, flipping through them as he said, "Out of my generosity and mercy, I've decided to give you two a bit more screen time. Take a look and see what you think."

Shiler's hand paused. He instinctively had a bad feeling, but he still took the script. After just a few glances, surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all — written quite convincingly.

Then again, Stark was willing to spend money, so he'd definitely hired a known producer, and producers have considerable power; they'd surely find the most suitable screenwriter and director. Getting a decent-looking script wasn't strange.

"How so fast?" Shiler asked with some puzzlement. "However you put it, a few days isn't enough time to write this much script, right?"

"There's a thing in this world called the Time Variance Authority." Stark said smugly.

"Good grief." Shiler exclaimed. "That's Nick's turf. How much did you pay him?"

"Not much, a third of a quarter's budget." Stark didn't treat it as a big deal. "Oh, right, did I mention? Stark Industries' business has already expanded into the stars, earning quite a lot of Units. Giving Nick a cut is nothing."

Shiler raised an eyebrow. He'd heard about this — little Morgan had let it slip. Mainly they sell mining mechs, cheap and practical, solid quality, selling quite well.

But the main reason the market opened up was that the three great empires had been knocked flat; their exports had tightened, and what circulated on the market was all junk — either expensive, or hard to use, or both expensive and hard to use. At a time like that, Stark Industries putting out something comparable would naturally be popular.

It was foreseeable that Stark would again be among the first to get rich. But this has little to do with Earth's Stark Industries; you could throw him into a space junkyard and he'd still cobble something together. It's just the power of intellect.

After reading for a while, Shiler frowned. "Why so much screen time for the youth phase? Shouldn't the focus be on the decisive battle?"

"This film project has three parts." Stark explained. "The first part mainly covers my youth, the second is Stark Industries, and only the third is the decisive battle."

"The pacing is too slow." Shiler said. "You're not making a TV series. If the first part doesn't hook people, no one will want to watch the rest."

"But I don't want to make that kind of fast-paced popcorn flick." Stark said. "Just for eyeballs, cramming everything from dinosaur extinction to modern society into one film — that simply won't do."

Shiler paused. He'd fallen into a misconception again. Because right now his friends aren't making superhero movies; they don't necessarily need an origin, growth, then final battle plot. They're making a personal biopic.

Like *Captain America* — after it came out it wasn't a superhero-style picture, but more like a war film. So Stark wanting to make a youth coming-of-age film isn't impossible.

"A film like this absolutely needs a romance subplot." Shiler said. "How do you plan to handle it?"

"Can't be solved." Stark said. "Honestly, me being a playboy only started after I took over Stark Industries. When I was younger, I once thought my soulmates were the lab bench and the lathe."

"That's actually not bad." Shiler nodded. "A genius boy scientist completely devoted to experiments, who one day meets like-minded friends and begins a thrilling friendship."

Stark held up a hand to stop him. "Before we get to 'genius boy scientist' and 'like-minded,' what does 'thrilling' mean?"

"Don't you think meeting us in university would be a pretty thrilling thing?" Shiler asked.

"Uh, where's the thrill?" Stark genuinely didn't know. He said, "Oh, I get it — you're not planning to drag me into skipping classes, are you? No matter, I never liked those classes anyway, the professors simply couldn't understand me…"

"Forget it. It's just a movie anyway, write it however you want." Shiler laughed and shook his head, setting the script down.

Stark was frantic. He said, "So what exactly happened in university? What did you guys do?"

"Nothing much." Shiler said. "I think the script's good, but you'd better show it to Shi Difen too. I feel you wrote his temper too badly."

"How could it be? I even had the screenwriter tone it down — originally it was worse." Stark said. "And I merely described his temper truthfully to the screenwriter."

"He wasn't this arrogant when he was young." Shiler sighed. "You forgot? He's from a small town. Med school doesn't give you surgery opportunities right away. Early on he was an unknown nobody, a total background character. Only after studying for a while did he start to stand out."

"There's even that backstory?" Stark's eyes rolled — clearly he wasn't holding anything good. But that was exactly what Shiler wanted; Stark would go investigate Strange like crazy and stop pestering him with the script every day.

Strange was still busy with magic academy matters; where would he find time to care what Stark was up to? And unbeknownst to him, Stark had already dug up everything on him, especially his university days.

Not checking was one thing; checking gave a shock. The younger Stephen Strange was a solitary, unpopular bookworm, hardly any friends, not valued by professors either. And to cover living expenses in New York, he worked odd jobs all over the place, did a lot of work.

Stark and Strange are the same age, just Strange is a few months older. But Strange went to med school; in the US you can't enter med school directly — you have to do undergrad first, then test into med school. By the time Strange got into med school, he was already not young.

Meanwhile Stark was a tycoon plus super-genius; he got a prestigious degree in his teens, and by his twenties had already taken over Stark Industries and become a famous playboy.

In other words, when Stark was enjoying fine wine and supermodels on a yacht, Strange might have just finished homework and rushed off to some fast-food joint to work; when Stark was commanding the boardroom, Strange stood behind all the other students, squeezing forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the professor's operation.

This didn't give Stark any pride; on the contrary, he felt a bit of panic. Because he realized that this Sorcerer Supreme who often argues with him over whether science or magic is superior had a starting point far, far lower than his. Even his origin was that much lower, not to mention he switched fields halfway.

Meaning, the time he spent learning and researching magic might be only a third of Stark's, yet he'd already become a Sorcerer Supreme on equal footing with him. Does that imply Strange's talent is better than his?

Once he starts thinking that kind of question, Stark's anxiety inevitably flares. It's not that he can't allow someone to have better talent; he just can't help wondering — if Strange had gone to Kamar-Taj from the start, enjoying all the magical world's resources like he did, would he now be far stronger? He'll never be able to prove science is stronger than magic, then the whole world develops magic, and he might be driven off Earth or arrested as a cultist…

It sounds irrational, but that's how an anxiety attack works — thoughts slide endlessly downhill. See one ant and feel the whole house has been hollowed out; see a puddle on the ground and feel the whole city is about to flood.

Then when Shiler finally freed up to go find Stark, sure enough he ran into another episode. After giving Stark a round of treatment, even Shiler was at a loss.

"You think this is my fault? Tony? Can you blame me for always catching you at your most embarrassing? I was only gone about 30-plus hours, and you anxious yourself into being unable to leave your chair. What happened?"

Stark looked terrible. Shiler sighed deeply. "It's about Stephen, isn't it?"

Stark still wanted to play tough, but Shiler had already pulled out his phone to call. Stark pressed his hand down on it. "No, don't call him. I don't want him seeing me make a fool of myself."

"We're friends." Shiler said. "I mean the three of us. Don't take those imagined confrontations and project them into reality. Stephen has never hurt you, Tony."

"How would he." Stark said. "The candied fruit he brought me was sour enough to kill."

Shiler froze. He said, "I thought you were going to bring up his father."

"Oh, heavens, there's that too." Stark started clutching his head in pain again. Shiler was annoyed into a laugh. Tony Stark is like something God created after getting drunk, stumbling to the bathroom at midnight, and running into a ghost.

Shiler ignored his protest and called anyway. Strange hurried over, looked at the two of them, then said, "What's up? What happened?"

"Here's the thing. Tony wants to make a film." Shiler still didn't say it straight; he just said, "Originally we two were just needed for cameos, but then extra scenes got added until we might have to play supporting roles. Do you have time?"

"A film?" Strange was a bit surprised.

"Right. Because Stark Industries' previous promo videos didn't do well, while *Captain America* was a huge success, so he wants to try making a personal film about his youth."

"Okay." Strange nodded. "Wait, that's not right. What does youth have to do with us two? I didn't know him when I was young, right?"

"Naturally there's been some adaptation." Shiler said. "Anyway, in his youth he'll run into us while we're in university…"

Shiler handed the script to Strange. Strange skimmed it, thought a moment, and said, "I do have time, but you're not expecting me to de-age and play my younger self, are you?"

"Why not?" Shiler shrugged. "The audience will definitely be curious what the Sorcerer Supreme was like in his youth. They'll surely be shocked."

Strange's expression turned a bit unnatural. He said, "The key issue is we'd be facing a young Tony Stark — a terrifying playboy."

Shiler narrowed his eyes. "Sounds like you don't much like young Tony?"

"I never said that. Call me when filming starts." Strange was clearly dodging; he only left that one line and hurried away.